Take Cupcakes Up A Notch!

Want to invite your guests to have a bite of these delicious cupcakes? You can make these simple signs yourself and watch those cupcakes disappear! 

Want to make those same cupcakes look more formal?  Use these 'high rise' glass holders to make them look like they are a 'cut above.'  All photography by Peter Lammers.

Daisies Do It!

Sometimes the simplest floral displays are the ones you can do yourself.  A simple white pitcher, some diasies and greenery--voila!  Don't forget to add the floral fresherner in to water so the flowers last longer. 

This photo and design courtesy of Florists' Review Magazine. Be sure to pick up some of their books or magazines when planning your special event.

DIY Paper Lanterns with Floral Details

All Photos courtesy of Masterpiece Weddings &/Or Crafty Nest

Masterpiece Weddings blog showed this great tutorial on making these fabulous paper lanterns.  Start with a simple white lantern (or lantern in your choice of flower color), glue on some fake flowers using your trusty hot glue gun, add some tiny pompoms for centers and voila!

This is an inspired crafty use of simple paper lanterns and fake flowers and pompoms from your craft store (my favorite is Michael's but in case there isn't one in your area, choose your personal favorite). 

Looking for more inspiration? Head over to Crafty Nest for the complete tutorial and photos of some colorful examples she found at a convention.  I do love crafty people!  Be sure to read the rest of the posts on Crafty Nest and Masterpiece Weddings for more fabulous ideas for your wedding.

Photo courtesy of Crafty Nest

Place Cards, The Natural Way

Using pears as a theme for your wedding?  Consider using a lush, juicy pear as a favor and leaning your place cards against it.  Some mail order catalogs like Harry and David offer huge, gorgeous and ripe Royal Riviera® Pears ready to eat that can be shipped to your home, this way you can avoid worrying about finding ripe pears.  A little more expensive but worth not having to worry about finding a hundred or more pears ripe and ready to eat at your local grocery store.  And the quality of the fruit is excellent.  You'll cross your fingers and hope someone forgets theirs--so you can take them home with you! 

Another option to use to hold your place cards is pomegranates (photo and tutorial by DecorItYourself.)   The only trick with these is getting one with a flat enough bottom.  Shop carefully or you'll have 'rolling fruit' every time someone knocks into a table! But they sure offer a pretty but natural option for place card holders.  Consider pairing with Pomegranate Bellini (recipe from Nest, where style starts at home) and you'll have a great natural theme going.

Pomegranate Bellini

Recipe:

-Cut 1 organic pomegranate into fourths and began separating the seeds from the peel. -Place seeds in a bowl with a small spoon for serving.
-Add a spoonful (or more) of your seeds to each glass of champagne.

Be careful to clean up any juice promptly, the juice from pomegranates will stain your cutting board or countertop if not cleaned up immediately.

Even more natural? Country Living suggests you choose a branch with some colorful leaves or berries attached to put next to your place cards.  Set both on top of rustic looking plates for a farmhouse look.

DIY Twilight Bottle Labels

With the rash of Twilight theme weddings, obviously we need a DIY project to fit the theme.  Hostess with The Mostess HWTM Daily Blog has these vampire labels for your bottles are easy to make and will show off your theme to your guests.  Print these Vampire Drink Labels, then just slide them over bottles of RED drinks like Pomegranate IZZE, Boylan’s Black Cherry Soda, and whatever other red concoctions the store shelves have to offer that can pass for Type A and B, the favorite tipple of any self-respecting vampire! Your grandmother may shudder, but your friends will love it! 

I'll be posting my recipes for some Twilight appropriate alcoholic drinks coming soon on my Signature Drinks for Your Wedding Blog.  Stay tuned!

Mason Jar Simple Centerpiece-Very DIY!

Want an easy DIY centerpiece for your wedding? Try these simple mason jars, tied with a ribbon in your wedding colors or to coordinate with them, and add Craspedia Billy Ball Flowers (see Fifty Flowers where you can get 100 stems for $108.99) and use some lightly colored water.  Easy, simple, and inexpensive.  Look for your mason jars at garage sales or buy them by the case at BuyCheaper, either way they aren't very expensive.  When choosing your jars consider the size of your tables, larger tables, use larger jars.  Or consider using multiple jars on each table but smaller jars.  Your call. 

I can visualize this with three jars on a table using bright grosgrain ribbon in hot colors or paler colors to suit your color scheme.  This is definitely an EASY DIY project, one that is doable on the day of your wedding or even the day before without going insane.  (Photo courtesy of Becky Young Photography, Denver, CO)

Black Friday Isn't Just For Christmas Anymore!

It's the day after Thanksgiving and what would that be without a great Black Friday Sale?  Yummy Arts has a great sale on the download of their book "Cake Decorating Made Easy."  For brides looking to save keep the lid on their wedding budget, making their own cake is a great way to do it. 

In addition to our normal bonuses:

• Bonus #1 "The Ultimate Cake Decorating Resource Guide"
• Bonus #2 "How To Speak Cake Decorating"
• Bonus #3 "Favorite Cookie Recipes"
• Bonus #4 "Killer "Copycat" Recipe Cookbook"
• Bonus #5 "Unbelievable Cheesecake Recipes"
• Bonus #6 "Striping, Tips, & Dummies"
• Bonus #7 "Piping Figures & Shapes"

Yummy Arts is adding these special bonuses: instructions on how to make 6 different cupcake bouquets and cupcake cakes - very easy and very impressive!  You can impress you guests over the holidays while you practice the skills you need for the holidays. 

My favorite bonus is directions for how to make very realistic chocolate Christmas ornaments that can be left hollow or filled with treats! Learn how to make these so real that you'll fool everyone!

 Yummy Arts offers their customers a 100% Risk-Free Money Back Guarantee. Either you're completely happy, or you get your money back. Period. AND, you can keep the Video Books and ALL the bonuses as "Thank you" gifts from us!

List Price: $57.77
Our Price: $57.77
Sale Price: $37.77
You save $20.00!

Take advantage of Yummy Arts' great Black Friday sale.  Black Friday isn't just for Christmas anymore! 

Butterflies in Your Wedding Photos

Want to add some butterflies to your photos but not getting married where they'll naturally land on you for a cool photo? So import some! No, do NOT order those butterflies that you can use for a butterfly release that end up half dead! Buy some fakes...scatter them on your dress or veil or even have one sitting on your hand.  Or if you have a photographer who is adept with Photoshop they can simply Photoshop them in! This works well for dragonflies too.  This photo by Henrique Gendre for Alcacuz SS 2011 campaign.

Butterscotch Pumpkin Pie Truffles From Diary of A Mad Hausfrau

Butterscotch Pumpkin Pie Truffles - oh my! Visit Diary of A Mad Hausfrau for the great recipe for these little gems!

Rich truffles coated with a glittering coating of disco dust!  All edible, in fact they will disappear so fast you won't know what happened to them!  See, somebody already stole a bite in the photo above!

So visit Diary of A Mad Hausfrau for this great recipe as well as other great recipes.  Take your time to explore this site, it's well worth your while!  Photos courtesy of Diary of A Mad Hausfrau.

Peppermint Stick Cocoa In A Jar

A favor for your guests that they are sure to remember is this delicious cocoa in a jar.  Not only does it taste good once they get home and make it, it looks pretty too! The striations of sugar, powdered milk, cocoa, chocolate chips and peppermint stick make it an attractive gift for giving. Recipe from My Recipe web page.

An Elegant Twist on Mason Jars

Looking for a sophisticated DIY project that looks expensive but isn't? Try making these lacey mason jar vases or candle holders.  The final cost is only about $12, less if you can pick up the jars at garage sales or if you have some in your basement at home.  Reuse is my middle name! Well actually my middle name is Jane but...

What do you need to make this? A spool of lace, tape, scissors, a large mason jar, some spray paint, a paint brush, glitter accent paint and a candle or flowers depending on what your final use for the jar is.  Inexpensive and pretty easy.  For the tutorial visit Machaela Noelle Designs. 

Lighting for the DIY Challenged

Decorating for an outdoor wedding? DIY challenged? Believe me, anyone can pull this one off! And best of all, it costs next to nothing.  Use mismatched mason jars and votive candles to create this simple look that lights up your space.  It's cheap, cleans up easily and looks thought out and beautiful.  Photo courtesy of Apartment Therapy.

Faux-quets to Save $$$

Faux bouquet that will last a lifetime

Are you a DIY bride? Even if you are DIY challenged, this simple bouquet is probably something you can pull together.  The flowers in this bouquet are all made of cedar or balsa wood and wrapped with fabric. The designer used fabric from Spoonflower but you can use the fabric or ribbon of your choice to wrap your faux-quet.  The bride who made this great bouquet has a tutorial on her web site, Creative Brit Living, here. 

The materials from Save On Crafts are listed below.  Doesn't the price look right? especially for flowers that will last forever and not just for your wedding day!

Materials
20 Natural Cedar Roses On Stems ($0.89 each)10 Sola Shell Flowers ($0.22 each)
15 Sola Roses ($5)
Wire stem ($8)
2 Bundles of Preserved Caspia ($16)
Floral tape ($2)
Glue gun
Wire cutters

Corsage Instead of Bouquet?

Brides to be are always looking for an easy way to handle the flowers for their wedding party.  Think about using a floral arranger.  What's a floral arranger? No, it's not your talented local florist (though he/she is a talented resources for weddings), a floral arranger is a bendable wire grid that works with any vase or vessel that lets the inexperienced diy'er arrange their flowers and have them look like a pro did the job. Floral arrangers have a crystal tassel that you can match or choose in an accent color. These arrangers are perfect for use by a wedding diy'er. 

And while they are made to be used on a vase, a floral arranger can also be used to make a wrist corsage.  Just attach your flowers with floral wire or tape, add some ribbon, beads or additional decoration of you choice, and add a piece of ribbon or elastic to hold it on your wrist. How easy is that?

Lilly Pulitzer Christmas Flowers For Weddings

Are you a Lilly fan? No not the lilies with one L, Lilly with 2 LL's ...Lilly Pulitzer! What you don't know Lilly? Lilly Pulitzer was just 21 years old when she eloped and married Peter Pulitzer and escaped the insanity and cold New York City winters for the sand and sun of Palm Beach.  Peter was running the family orange groves so Lilly started,, what else? a juice stand.  Yes, you guessed it, juicing is messy work and pretty soon her new biz resulted in a wardrobe inadvertantly 'dyed' bright colors.  So instead of dragging out the bleach or throwing out her wardrobe, Lilly adapted and started a line of bright colored shift dresses in the hues of the fruit she juiced! Her dresses were all bright colored prints and they quickly became the rage in resorts all over the USA.  Even Jackie Kennedy was wearing Lilly. 

Move forward to today and fashion forward people still love Lilly! Are you a Lilly fan?  Have you always wanted a Lilly wedding? If so try some of these great ways to bring a litttle extra zing to your wedding day. 

Follow in Lilly's footsteps and stay with those bright hues.  What? You can't find Christmas wedding flowers in Lilly's signature hues? It's time to break out the the spray paint by Design Master.

Pink Glow energizes a coral poinsettia, then decorate w/loose micro glitter adhered w/ Glue For Glitter for the pink look.  For that hot glowing green? Olive bright color on a white poinsettia is soon to be a wedding fave. 

Add napery in Lilly's signature materials if you want still more of a Lilly Look. (See previous post on a wedding shower in Lilly).  Resources for the above two photos there.

Tiny Bites of Bliss To Serve At Your Wedding

Small bites of bliss to serve at your wedding are a must have!  These Quail Eggs In A Hole are tiny gourmet wonders that your guests will be sure to enjoy.  Want to glam them up a bit? After you add the egg and slightly cook it, add some smoked salmon and a sliver of chive as seen here. 

A Dole of Doves At Your Wedding - Cookie Style

Releasing doves at a wedding ceremony is a nice accent on your wedding day. But a bit impractical for most of us.  Instead why not bake a dole of doves to serve to your wedding guests. (ha! learned a new word didn't you? Groups of doves can be flocks but dole is a lot more fun!)

Doves at weddings represent love, unity, happiness and eternal life.  On Diary of A Mad Hausfrau you can find these great dove cookies that are perfect to serve to your wedding guests.  There is a recipe for her sugar cookies posted there as well as a tutorial on decorating the doves.  She'll show you how she added some 'disco dust' to the wings and tail to jazz up the cookies.  It is both an art and science to produce these cookies for your wedding guests.

Photo credits: Diary of A Mad Hausfrau

DIY Cupcake Paper Topiary

Getting your DIY brain revving up? These cupcake paper topiary show you there are a lot of things you can do with cupcake papers other than JUST make cupcakes! The top photo from Bits & Scraps of My Life.  The other one someone is from A Little Cuppa Tea.  Both have great tutorials, just follow the link! Both would be great for a wedding shower!

Fall Party Treats

Photo courtesy of Pizzazzerie via Paper & Pigtails

The folks at Pizzazzerie posted this great idea for a fall party treats, courtesy of a great stylist and designer, Kori from Paper & Pigtails.  These are the perfect treats for a sweet table at a fall wedding or to give as wedding favors.  I love white pumpkins for weddings so it was inevitable that I would fall for these white pumpkin marshmallow treats!

Not having a fall wedding? No problem! Just save the idea for your first Thanksgiving and wow your guests! Either way head on over to Paper and Pigtails for the tutorial.

While you're there take the time to browse the other great ideas and add them to your list of 'MUST READ BLOGS.' 

Salty Sweet Candied Peanuts - Appetizers for Your Guests

Jeanette from Everybody Likes Sandwiches has a fabulous recipe for Salty, Sweet Candied Peanuts.  If you're looking for an easy DIY recipe to serve either at a wedding shower or at your wedding these are IT!.

Jeanette adapted the recipe from one at Eat, Make, Read.  Both of the recipes look great! I tried Jeanette's and can vouch for it, but the one from Eat, Make, Read looks great too, just a little more expensive to put together.  These should keep for a week or a week and a half.  Great with some beer or just snacking with soda! Like anything with the sweet/salty dichotomy? Head over to Everybody Likes Sandwichs, you'll find other snack recipes with a similar flavor--call your friends, make a batch, taste test them all! Photos of Salty Sweet Peanuts from Everybody Likes Sandwiches.

Is Vera Wang Going Goth?

No, I think it's safe to say that Vera isn't going Goth, but her elegant new collection will certainly appeal to brides who are.  The Vera Wang 2012 Collection is all chic black and nude wedding dresses.  Maybe this is a sneak peak at future bridal trends.  Wang is usually several season ahead of the rest of the wedding gown industry (witness her previous collections featuring blush and lavender gowns). 

Is Wang betting the farm on these black beauties? No, she'll still make gowns in other colors or whites, but she's giving brides the OPTION to choose the color or lack of color that suits them best.  Wang's choice of black for brides isn't that surprising--Wang wears black almost exclusively. 

Her 2012 collection is comprised of 16 pieces, with no whites, creams, blush or other colors.  I think it's safe to say now that Vera has put her stamp of approval on black for brides other designers and wedding gown manufacturers will follow suit. 

Is a black wedding gown for you? I'd love to hear your input.  Black, thumbs up? or thumbs down? Would you wear it?

Two DIY Wreaths Under $10

Need to decorate your church door? Your reception door? But don't want to spend a lot of money? This is soooo easy, it qualifies for my rating SEEICDI.  (So easy even I can do it).  This wreath is the brainchild of Thrifty Decor Chick, the queen of decorating for pennies on the dollar! 

Just buy some thick foam core board from Hobby Lobby for $5 – it was half an inch thick and it was already 20 inches wide, some packets of leaves bought at Dollar Tree (my home away from home for inexpensive craft supplies) or Dollarama (another reader suggested this, I don't have one where I live), a jigsaw or something to cut the foam board with (no matter what you're using, handle with care), some reddish spray paint, a few simple weights to keep the frame from blowing in the wind, and a hot glue gun (my weapon of choice for crafting!) 

Visit Thrifty Decor Chick for the exact directions for this great wreath as well as to see all her other great ideas, none of which will break the bank.  The girl should write a book!

Another great wreath is from House of Hepworth.  This wreath is a little more 3-D but each wreath has it's own charm.  Hard to decide which one I like best. Head over there to find the exact directions and what you'll need to purchase from your Daollar Store. 

House of Hepworth is another great read--of course if you're not careful you'll end up like me...having to force yourself to STOP...it's addictive behavior! I wonder if they have a Blog Readers Anonymous Group?  I get so sucked into reading about the adventures of my friends in the blogosphere that I almost forget it's time to get some work done myself!

Neckwear For Your Ring Bearer

Gotcha! I just couldn't resist luring you in with that title, because I just love this do it yourself photo! An easy DIY ring bearer pillow for an unusual ring bearer! Are you a 'dog fancier?'  Can't imagine having your wedding without man's best friend?  Then this project is for you.  And it seems to be a trend among dog loving brides and grooms to include their first 'baby' on their wedding day.  This photo is courtesy of Martha Steward Wedding (where of course you can find EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about having a wedding, not just a ring bearer pillow for your pup!).

This project is so simple it doesn't even need directions! Just some material, a sewing machine, pillow filling, some rick rack and a measuring tape. Get to it!

DIY Cupcake Stand - A Piece of Cake!

Making your own DIY cupcake stand isn't as hard as it sounds.  In fact it's one of the easier DIY projects around.  This butterfly theme cupcake stand is made with these laser cut butterfly design cake stand wrappers designed to go around your favorite cake stand from Fancy Flours. 

This decorative wrapper is laser cut paper and comes in a pack of six strips, each about 8.5", enough to wrap a cake stand up to 15" in diameter.  The vertical drop is 2.5".  The strips interlock to make a longer seamless strip of a lacy look edge for your cupcake or cake stand.

Wafer paper butterflies can be added to the top of your cupcakes to finish your look.  Also available at Fancy Flours.

Not sure if the hardest part is putting your credit card number in to order them online or washing the cake plate! As I said, "a piece of cake."  OK OK, I just couldn't resist that comment! 

You can also buy matching cupcake wrappers to pull the look together. 

Cupcake Topiary - More Ideas For Weddings and Showers

Cupcake topiary, whether they are made by professionals (Like the one above) or a DIY project they never fail to wow your guests. I've posted other cupcake topiary but the one above is a little different.  It's a hydrangea topiary, made the same way the other topiary was (see link) but with a bit of extra pizazz.  Cupcake topiary are hot blog topics so I thought I'd share these with you. 

This professionally made hydrangea cupcake topiary is perfect for a wedding sweet table or a bridal shower.   And while this topiary is decorated with hydrangeas, you could use eatable pansies or other sugar flowers as well.

The hydrangea cupcake topiary is from Lisa Roberts Cakes via the cupcake blog. Visit Lisa's web site to see her variety of great cake options, believe me, this talented cake designer offers her clients in Ontario incredible bespoke cake designs, beautifully hand-crafted wedding cakes (see her blog for some absolutely gorgeous wedding cakes), cookies, cupcakes, and gourmet chocolates.  

Other cupcake topiary have slightly different designs but all have the same basic form and how to directions.  Styrofoam ball or tree shape, cupcakes, toothpicks (use two per cupcake) and a planter, either a clay pot or more decorative planter. Other additions can be added such as in the Alice In Wonderland topiary below.

If you're a bride (or have a groom) who loves chocolate, don't despair! Chocolate topiary can be made as well. The one below from Creative Quality Catering has my mouth watering! No matter which topiary you choose to make your guests will be impressed with your creativity and DIY IQ. 

Can't quite figure out how to make these? Head to YouTube for some easy to follow tutorials on cupcake topiary art.  Hope you have fun! Add your comments below on how your attempts went or add a link with the photos of your artistic endeavors.